Hyping Thelonious Monster's Stormy Westher
(Relativity) and Too Much
Joy's Son of Sam I Am (Alias)
as the hottest independent rock albums of
early 1989 is like hyping Ozark Ike for hitting .364 in the Piedmont
League. If anything, the ballplayer has a better shot at the bigs--with
vanishing exceptions, the rough-hewn guitar-based pop bands that
dominate the collegiate-bohemian Amerindie circuit are stylistic
aliens in a world of mildly funky synthesized hits. Don't think
they're upholding the one true faith, either--most indie musicians
are semi-talented, self-involved neotraditionalists-in-disguise.
They're rarely prefab, though, and while synthesizers have their
charms, prefabrication is a must to avoid.

Thelonious Monster began as a joke hardcore band from Orange County
led by Bob Forrest, a locally famous bad boy who has suffered, just
like so many other bad boys--Richard Speck, Axl Rose, etc. By 1987's
Next Saturday Afternoon he was getting songful and soulful
about it, and now he's cut down on the self-involvement. The keys
are "Sammy Hagar Weekend," a joke hardcore putdown that feels for
its victims, and "Colorblind," about how his family's white flight
made his boyhood (more) miserable. Also Tracy Chapman's For Your
Lover, played straight.

Too Much Joy play nothing straight--they're overeducated wise guys
(from Yale, Stanford, like that) who tread the thin line between
smart and smart-ass. The tunes are such that the first one to hit
you could be the L.L. Cool J cover, but they do sink in. And behind
Tim Quirk's postpreppie projection, the lyrics--about suburbia,
homelessness, reincarnation, the terrors of turning 23--kick ass,
or at least smart-ass. These guys are funny, yet they have feelings,
too. Not prefab.